Holiday Shoppers Drive Cyber Monday Sales: Hot Trends

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Cyber Monday, as the Internet's version of Black Friday takes place Monday

Holiday shoppers in search of deals and discounts will take to the Web Monday more than any other day during the season. Research firm comScore estimated that this year's Cyber Monday will be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row. This year, an estimated $1.5 billion will be spent on Cyber Monday in America, a 20% increase from last year.

Online shopping this holiday season is growing as a whole. ComScore also said that online sales on Black Friday, the busiest in-store shopping day of the year, rose 26% to $1.04 billion from last year. That marks the first time Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion. Shoppers even took to their computers on Thanksgiving, with sales rising 32% from a year ago to $633 million.

The term "Cyber Monday" was created by Shop.org in 2005 after noticing online sales that soared on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

UBS ( UBS) is trending as the firm has been fined 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) by the U.K. in connection to rogue trader Kweku Adoboli's $2.3 billion trading loss.

The Financial Services Authority, which issued the fine, said the loss is indicative of serious weaknesses in management and internal controls at UBS. The FSA said it found that UBS' computerized trading system could not effectively detect unauthorized trades. It also found that the desk where the fraud took place was not proficient in dealing with breaching daily trading limits, among other weaknesses.

Now, UBS is also being told by Finma, the Swiss regulator, that it may have to increase capital levels for operational risks. Finma said it told UBS to appoint an independent third party to monitor the company's progress on improving its management systems and internal controls. Finma said once the program to fix these failings is completed, an auditor will check the effectiveness of the company's controls against unauthorized trading.

Adoboli was recently sentenced to seven years in jail after operating the largest unauthorized trading scandal in British history. He was convicted of two counts of fraud.

Barclays ( BCS) is another popular search. Qatar Holding said it has sold its remaining warrants in the British bank.

Qatar remains the largest shareholder in Barclays. Its 6.7% stake in Barclays remains unchanged. The sovereign wealth fund said it monetized 379 million units of Barclays warrants, which it acquired during the financial crisis when Barclays raised money from new investors. Deutsche Bank ( DB) and Goldman Sachs ( GS) sold as many as 303.3 million shares in Barclays for 244 pence apiece. Qatar said it remains confident in Barclays' long-term prospects, despite selling the warrants.

The chatter on Main Street (a.k.a. Google, Yahoo! and other search sites) is always of interest to investors on Wall Street. Thus, each day, TheStreet compiles the stories that are trending on the Web, and highlights the news that could make stocks move.

-- Written by Brittany Umar.

Brittany joined TheStreet.com TV in November 2006 after completing a degree in Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers College. Previously, Brittany interned at the local ABC affiliate in New York City WABC-TV 7 where she helped research and produce On Your Side, a popular consumer advocacy segment.